The Ironworks
The Ironworks was an empire of industry and cruelty, a sprawl of interconnected cities bound together by rail lines and sustained by the labor of enslaved Irons. During its height around 113 DC, the region stretched across the former American Midwest, from the frozen mining pits of Twin City to the weapons factories of Motor City, from the contested shores of the Great Lake to the outlier settlements on its southern fringe. At its center sat Rail City, the crown jewel built on the bones of pre-fall Chicago, where the Chancellor held absolute authority and the Stockyard processed thousands of lives through auction every day.
The railways were the circulatory system of this empire. Ore moved from Twin City to Steel City for refining, alloy traveled to Motor City for manufacturing, grain flowed from the farms of Wischigan to feed the workers and slaves who kept the machinery turning. The trains ran on a combination of coal, biodiesel, and the output of the Dead Furnace in Rust City, where the undead themselves were burned for energy. It was a system of brutal efficiency, each city serving a function in the larger apparatus, each Mayor answering to the Chancellor or facing replacement.
The empire ran on Iron Slave labor. The Coach managed the enslaved population from Rail City, dispatching labor to factories, mines, and farms, allocating breeding stock where needed, and operating the Stockyard auctions that determined a person's fate with the bang of a gavel. Resistance to enslavement was met with escalating violence: a wounded slave was patched and returned; a twice-wounded slave was tortured publicly; a five-times-wounded survivor was sent to the Abbey of the First Fission, which was considered worse than death. The system was designed to crush hope, and for generations it succeeded.
But the seeds of its destruction were planted in every city. The New Abolitionist movement grew in silence, drawing members from every creed and strain, reaching into the Chancellor's own government. The Kings' Court carried coded freedom songs through the slave quarters. Madtown sheltered freed Irons under the nose of the Ironworks. Soosainmaree became a legend whispered in slave songs, a promised land across the waters. And every Iron Slave, shaped by the Infection into something stronger and more resilient with each generation, was a potential soldier for the cause. The empire that ran on their blood would one day learn that blood can burn.
The railways were the circulatory system of this empire. Ore moved from Twin City to Steel City for refining, alloy traveled to Motor City for manufacturing, grain flowed from the farms of Wischigan to feed the workers and slaves who kept the machinery turning. The trains ran on a combination of coal, biodiesel, and the output of the Dead Furnace in Rust City, where the undead themselves were burned for energy. It was a system of brutal efficiency, each city serving a function in the larger apparatus, each Mayor answering to the Chancellor or facing replacement.
The empire ran on Iron Slave labor. The Coach managed the enslaved population from Rail City, dispatching labor to factories, mines, and farms, allocating breeding stock where needed, and operating the Stockyard auctions that determined a person's fate with the bang of a gavel. Resistance to enslavement was met with escalating violence: a wounded slave was patched and returned; a twice-wounded slave was tortured publicly; a five-times-wounded survivor was sent to the Abbey of the First Fission, which was considered worse than death. The system was designed to crush hope, and for generations it succeeded.
But the seeds of its destruction were planted in every city. The New Abolitionist movement grew in silence, drawing members from every creed and strain, reaching into the Chancellor's own government. The Kings' Court carried coded freedom songs through the slave quarters. Madtown sheltered freed Irons under the nose of the Ironworks. Soosainmaree became a legend whispered in slave songs, a promised land across the waters. And every Iron Slave, shaped by the Infection into something stronger and more resilient with each generation, was a potential soldier for the cause. The empire that ran on their blood would one day learn that blood can burn.
Geography
The Ironworks occupied the flat Midwestern plains of the former United States, encompassing parts of what had been Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. Cities were connected by rail, with Rail City serving as the central hub and the tracks radiating outward to every major settlement. The Great Lake, swollen by arctic meltwater into a merged and salinated body of water, formed the northern boundary. To the west lay Mini Soda and the frozen mining territory of Twin City. The eastern reaches extended to Motor City and the contested border region known as the Reach. South of the core cities, the Corn Wastes and burned-out plains separated the Ironworks from outlier settlements like Speedtown, Arch City, and the ruins of CinCinn. Severe tornado seasons, carried inland from the dried plains, made travel between cities a seasonal gamble. The spaces between the rail-connected cities were largely empty: corn wastes, dried-out farmland, and territory too dangerous for permanent habitation.
History
Corebook Era
The earliest records describe how the massive factory cities of the Great Lake region became fortresses against the coming horde in the aftermath of the zombie plague. The factory owners, technological savants, and rail barons tied their cities together and cut off the outside world, preferring to go it alone against the walking dead rather than seek help from others. It started as a great collective, where laborers, leaders, and civilians all came together in a time of crisis to do their share. Every man earned his worth and pulled his weight. But with time, corruption, greed, and pride took their toll. Laborers became slaves and the social strata set like cement, locking entire populations into their fate by birth.
Defining the borders of the Ironworks was a network of rail lines that moved people and supplies between four great walled cities. This network of well maintained rails and roads provided transportation unparalleled anywhere in the Merican wasteland. Even the iron horses of the Lone Star and hot rods of the Roar's Dieseljocks lacked the intricate details of the massive brass boilers and painstakingly detailed mechanisms of the Ironworks' rail lines.
